


Ty Lee's bucket list

by Keenir



Series: Avatar prompt responses [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Adulthood, Gen, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-29
Updated: 2015-01-29
Packaged: 2018-03-09 07:05:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3240731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlets written with the aid of prompts from the <a href="http://tyluk04ever.deviantart.com/journal/Ty-Luko-Week-is-here-229611950">Ty Luko Week</a>.</p>
<p>over-arching theme:  things Ty Lee has on her bucket list.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ty Lee's bucket list

** 1\. Upsidedown: Iroh. **

"Ah, Ty Lee," Iroh said, seeing who was striding soconfidently into the Royal Beverage Room, one of the few things the modern palace had which had been crafted for Sozin's father. "Would you care for some tea?"

Ty Lee wrinkled her nose. _Tea is okay, maybe decent - still not sure why that foreign hot leaf juice is so exotically popular. I mean, its not like we don't have a native hot berry juice that people love. Or the hot bean juice that everyone thinks I drink even though I'm allergic to it._ "No, I just have something to tell you."

He gave an expansive and elaborate gesture, mindful of his one-person audience. "Please do."

_You thought nobody'd notice, and Zuko didn't notice, even when he recounted it to me and Mai. People make fun of me because I spend so much time upsidedown. But doing that, that's nothing next to following the path logic takes when Azula wants to do something. My mom was the same way, only not as good at bending, or at bossing people around._ "Ba Sing Se."

"A fine city," Iroh says.

"You didn't want history to think of power grabs, but you did power grab Ba Sing Se."

"We liberated it."

"From other Fire Nation soldiers. You took beat them up, and took their power - like Aang did with your brother - like Zuko did with Azula," _with my friend._

Iroh set down his tea. "Your charge is a serious one, young lady," and for a moment, she could see the Dragon of the West looking at her.

"I know," Ty Lee said.

"And it is past."

Ty Lee gave a small smile. Not one of the big ones she gave to people she liked or wanted to make nervous or when she was in a fun mood. No, this was a smile she used when she was with people who didn't think like normal people or like special people like Azula and Mai. _Lu Ten thought like you. And like Azula. He was nice. And he could be very silly._ She looked at Iroh, the once greatest General of this generation for the Fire Nation, the lauded Dragon of the West, the dragonslayer himself. _You think and plan lots of moves ahead. You taught Azula how to do that. But one thing even she couldn't handle -_ "I'm going to marry Zuko," Ty Lee figuratively dived right off the platform, "and you get to help."

Iroh looked at her, then blinked. "While I agree my nephew still has some things to do now that he is maturing, you may be getting ahead of yourself, Ty Lee."

_Normally, that sort of statement produces more disorientation, or at least anger. Okay, move to the next step - boing on the net and grab the trapeze when it comes by -_ "Yes, but only if you win. If I win, you have to speak on my behalf."

Intrigued and more than a little curious about this, and where it was going, Iroh asked, "If I win what?" assuming the girl couldn't be intending what she seemed to be intending - it made no sense.

"I challenge you to an Agni Kai," Ty Lee said in a loud, firm, and clear voice. It wasn't hard at all.

"You aren't a firebender," he pointed out mildly.

"Neither was Katara. And she beat Azula in Zuko's Agni Kai for the Nation." _Azula had been quite vocal about that._ "Rules break, General, its already done. And it wasn't even his favorite and most trusted person in the whole wide world. It was a girl he traveled with." _Gossips like talking about Zuko and Katara. And Zuko and Toph. And Zuko and Suki. They always gossip._

"I see," Iroh said, and sounded like he might actually be grasping it. "And is that why you are challenging me?" sounding like his last two fingers were about to slip off the bar.

"Are you refusing?" Ty Lee inquired.

"On the contrary. But I have a further question for you: Should you win the Agni Kai, I would in all likelihood be dead. How then could I argue in your favor?"

Azula and Mai would have rolled their eyes. Ty Lee promised herself she'd do a few extra backflips for this during the Agni Kai. "You write it out in advance. And if you win, bye bye writing," Ty Lee said, spelling it out. _How do benders not think of things like this?_

"Then I refuse your Agni Kai on the grounds that one is not required," Iroh said. "You demonstrate the sort of thinking mind that I would have insisted be displayed in any of my nephew's prospective brides. I will be happy to speak with him in your favor."

"Thank you," she said, bowing. "If we can't duel, can we at least spar? Azula always said you were the most challenging adult she ever sparred with." _Not counting Lu Ten, but that may be me and my auras._

* * *

* * *

**2\. Knowing: Sokka.**

Sokka was raiding the kitchen at the time. He had been looking through the cabinets with their cereals and grains, but not finding what he was seeking: "Where are they? Mai wasn't kidding when she mentioned its hard to get enough fire flakes."

"I'm glad you and Mai get along," Ty Lee said, dropping from the ceiling like a hyperactive Dai Li agent. "I worry about her."

"Well, she's fine, and, uh...I'll be going back to my room now -" stopping when the index finger rose on the person of the Royal Wife, the First Minister, the Defender of Faith. Sokka had an inkling as to what that finger of Ty Lee's could do - and he was perfectly content leaving it with just an inkling.

"I know about New Ozai. Omashu's just as silly a name, don't you think?" she asked.

Sokka honestly wasn't sure how to tell if a girl was teasing him, 'shooting a breeze' as Aang had once put it. _Suki and Toph were never very good yardsticks where that's concerned, and Yue..._ "I've heard worse," Sokka said.

"I know you scared everyone out of the city. And you didn't even do it because you hated the name, I bet," she said, sounding like that would have been the better reason. "You did it..." and used one of those words she'd always heard from her mom and from Zuko's mom: "You did it _underhandedly!" Mom and Zuko's mom didn't mean the same thing as each other did, I know._ "You made a big stinky diapery lie."

"Alls fair in love and war, right?" Sokka asked, and then suspected, _probably the worst person I could have asked that of...aside from Mai or Azula._

Ty Lee smiled, precisely the way she did when she was what other people called happy and perky and bubbly. "Fair's fair in war," she agreed. "But you made people panic that pentapox was back."

_Back?_ "I made it up."

To Sokka's way of thinking, most people had to put on a scary face to be scary. That ended when he saw Ty Lee _stop_ smiling.

" **I** had pentapox when I was little," she informed him, remembering all those weeks she had to spend in a steamroom before the doctors would declare her safe.

"Oh. Did not know that. Honest," Sokka said.

"I should take your bending, make you withdraw all Ozai and sad-aura'ed...but you don't bend already," Ty Lee said, drawing back one hand anyway.

"What are you going to do?" he asked, bracing himself for the loss of feeling and control in multiple limbs once more.

That drawn-back hand went under her braid and ran it up like an exaggerated impression of royal bows and imperial topknots. "I'm going to get you something to drink, Sokka," Ty Lee said, all cheer once more.

He blinked. "I'm allergic to poison."

She giggled. "Why would I poison you?" _Complete waste of a good aura...and resources, Azula would say. She'd probably say something about his ass too._

Sokka thought, _Umm..._

* * *

Zuko joined Ty Lee on the royal balcony as the sun came up. "You left," Zuko said, remembering being informed in confidence that young ladies enjoyed their ears being nuzzled. _I just need to learn how to nuzzle - how can the Palace Library be that huge, and we don't have a dictionary?_

"The universe beckoned me to an opportunity, and I kicked butt," Ty Lee said, cradling a steaming cup of breakfast drink in her hands, and breathing deeply as her aura embraced Zuko's in a very nice morning way.

_Kicked...Please tell me you didn't learn that word on Kyoshi Island. "_ Sounds like fun."

"It was, lots. Sokka's very energetic."

Anyone else might've been worried that Ty Lee was informing Zuko she was carrying on an affair with his friend. Zuko, however, knew her. And knew that those two disparate statements had to be connected in her mind. _When you use that word, it never bodes well for whomever the target is._ "Ty Lee?" Zuko asked, leaning lightly against her undefeatable frame.

"Yes?" she asked, looking up into his eyes.

"What did you do to Sokka?"

In both answer and explanation, she lowered her head to look back out at where Sokka was racing the - _yep, racing against the half-awake cheetastriches_ \- and sipped at her hot drink.

One whiff was all Zuko needed to know that _they are going to kill me: Katara, Toph, Aang, everyone._ "Do I want to know why you gave Sokka coffee?"

* * *

* * *

**3\. SLIPPER: Jin.**

In other Nations, it was a shoe or a boot. In the Fire Nation, things tended to clear up when the figurative slipper of understanding went where it was supposed to. In Ty Lee's case, it slid on perfectly after she had a few conversations with Zuko about which foreign capitol they should visit first on matters of state importance, and a few conversations with Azula about various fun things - she doubted either of the royal siblings knew what she had in mind.

She knocked on the door a few times, and was hanging upside-down above the door, with her back arched so her face was right-side-up and smiling at the person who answered the door -  
Hi!" Ty Lee greeted cheerfully.

"Hello," said the homeowner, glancing to either side of the clearly very athletic young lady, wondering if there was a reason or set-up or celebration behind this. "May I help you?" as the young lady raised hands to the doorframe and clutched them as the rest of her uncoiled.

"Can I come in?" Ty Lee asked once she had both feet on the ground.

To her credit, Jin didn't blink in confusion or scream or slam the door. "You may," Jin said.

Ty Lee stepped inside and gave kind smiles and nods of her head to everything she saw - _I remember my mom would do this when she approved of what me and my sisters did with our room, or when we visited a friend's house_. "You have a lovely home," she said, emulating her mom.

"Thank you. Who are you?" Jin asked.

"I'm Ty Lee. Okay, officially I'm First Minister Ty Lee of the Fire Nation, and I'm here to talk to King Kuei - I hope he's not still mad - but Zuko's always full of praise, and there's not a lot in Ba Sing Se that he's proud of, but he met you and you made him happy and I'm happy that he got to be happy, and I wanted to meet you." Ty Lee paused, not so much to catch her breath, as from a thought occurring to her: "You do know that Zuko's the real name of -"

"Lee," Jin said. "I know. My father was a member of the External Military, so Princess Azula invited me for tea." _Better her doing it than the Dai Li._ "I've known almost as long as I knew of Lee," _in part because my dad recognized Lee's uncle._ "Can I get you something to drink?"

"I'd love something to drink. And I can tell we're going to be the best of friends, because your aura looks lots better than my sisters' do, and I always wanted a prickly hairstyle like you've got, but my Mom always told me that long hair and braids were so much prettier and maybe I shouldn't have listened at least once, just to see what it was like, and -" Ty Lee paused, seeing rattles and wraps and gourds of formula, _and anyone who hasn't grown up with as many babies as I have, would be turning to Jin and asking if it was Zuko's baby_.

Ty Lee turned to Jin, who was looking more than a little nervous around the taller athletic governmental royal woman. Ty Lee placed her palms reassuringly on Jin's upper arms and said, "You have a baby. Can I see, please?"

* * *

* * *

** 4\. Katara. **

"Can I hold him?" Ty Lee asked.

Katara looked at her, considered her. _The war was years ago. And even then, you came over to our side,_ Katara knew. "Okay," and eased little baby Bumi into Ty Lee's arms.

"I've got to go get some supplies," Katara said after a while. "I'll be right back."

"We'll be fine, won't we, Bumii," Ty Lee said with a huge baby-loving smile on her face. "Yess, yess!" which only got bigger and bigger giggles from baby Bumi himself.

* * *

When Katara opened the door on her return, the first thing she saw was Ty Lee still holding baby Bumi, now with one hand. Ty Lee's other hand was raised above the baby, two fingers extended in a position that occasionally still haunted Katara's nightmares: the chi-blocking and bending-removal...and that was on non-infants. "NO!" Katara screamed, racing towards them.

Without looking in Katara's direction, Ty Lee turned those fingers towards her when she was close enough, and jabbed them toward Katara's face. No sooner had those two fingers touched Katara's nose, than -

"Beep."

Baby Bumi laughed at the sound Ty Lee made. Katara stopped where she was, just shy of where Ty Lee and baby Bumi sat.

"Beep," Ty Lee said, touching the baby's nose now. "Beep."

Katara stood there as her neighbors came in to see what was the matter, and she considered just grabbing Ty Lee by the throat and asking her to leave. "I take it, the two of you had fun?" Katara asked, her voice as dry - according to Sokka and Aang and Toph - as when they had been younger and voyaging across the world on their quest to stop Fire Lord Ozai.

"Fun! Whee!" crowed baby Bumi.

 


End file.
